Day 117 - The Giants Suck, But I Made a Great Breakfast Sandwich!

Hello everyone!  Welcome to today's edition of J-DOC.  Here's the story:

Breakfast - I actually cooked today.  I woke up early and had time to cook!  Ya know why?  I think it's because the Yankee season is over and so I went to bed early!  I was in bed by 10 and asleep by 10:30 last night and so by 6am, I had a full 7.5 hours of sleep!  Makes waking up a lot easier!  So I made breakfast sandwiches for Kristyn and I.  Taylor ham, Egg whites/eggs, bagel thin.  Also had Trop 50.  I gotta get on this roll because it was GOOD!!!!!!!

   

Lunch - Leftover Pork Loin, egg noodles and carrots.  Delicious left overs.  Yum!  And then after lunch, I went back to the band room to teach my drummers how to figure out the 3rds and 7ths to read jazz chords on vibes!  This was entertaining to do!  Couple of really good kids who are going above and beyond.  Now at lunch duty, I did a bad thing.  Could not help myself - they introduced a new food today at lunch.  For the first time ever, they had empanadas.  They looked SOOOOOO good.  I asked for one but they I guess had to give me two.  I'm sorry, I'm not sorry I had those.  Nailed it!  I hope for my waist line that they don't do them again, but for my overall happiness in the moment, I hope they have them every day!  :-)

Dinner - Packed a cold cut sandwich on bagel thin - turkey, pepperoni and yellow american.  Really enjoyed it on the bagel thin.

Snacking throughout the day - At various points in the day, I sampled another 2 chocolate bars (I ate half of each, so in the end it was a full bar).  Also had my "nightly" pretzels and goldfish, piece of cheese and yes - - - - - I stopped for a Slurpee.  Gotta stop this slurpee thing!  Between the slurpees and the Dunkin mornings, it really is a waste of money AND a lot of calories.

Sports Note:  So tonight marked the end of my 2nd sports team's season in just 1 week.  Tuesday we lost the Yankees and Thursday we lost the Giants.  They are TERRIBLE and I just don't understand it.  But they basically rolled over today for the season.  And the worst part is that I tried to stay up to watch it and it made me tired in the morning, screwing with my breakfast making abilities.  I hate them on Thursday night games and I hate that they make me love them.  :-)   I also HHHAAATTTEEE the Eagles.  No trolling please.  I'm not a happy camper right now.  My patience is wearing thin. .. . . . .

Day 116 - I cooked!!!!!

Hello everyone!  I'm getting on a roll with the blogging.  Now I just have to get on a roll of making sure to eat all my meals at home and not snack too much.  I'm definitely doing better since I started back on here, so I think in a few days, I should be able to break myself of the bad habits I recreated.  Here's today's wrap-up

Breakfast - Once again, I intended to have cereal but we still have no milk.  I just don't think about it when I'm driving home from work .  Who thinks about milk?   I was a bad boy - I went to dunkin but at least I didn't get the Red Bull.  I got the Bagel and the Donut though.  I brought myself some gatorade.  Not amazing to drink but at least it's not Red Bull, agreed?

Snacking - Granola bar mid-morning

Lunch - For lunch I had leftover steak that Kristyn Made a couple nights ago along with 2 pierogis and some corn.  Yum Yum Yum!!!!!

                                          
Snacking - Grabbed a Slurpee on the way home. 

Dinner - Cracked Pepper Pork Loin with Egg Noodles and Baby Carrots.  I actually cooked this time.  Not that it was anything earth-shattering to make, but I have not cooked in awhile.

Snacking - Had some pretzels and Goldfish and also a frozen Lemonade.  I've got some fruit in my fridge.  Gotta start tapping into that . . . . . . habits!

See you tomorrow.  Spoiler alert - There is no Dunkin Donuts in tomorrow's blog, guaranteed.

Day 115 - 3 meals in!

So yesterday, I ate 3 meals out so I followed that up with 3 meals IN today!   What I mean by that is that I didn't buy any food and all the food came from home.  :-)  Let's see what I can remember.

Breakfast - So I was really running late since I actually had to feed the baby this morning.  Usually that's a recipe for disaster which starts with D and that stands for DUNKIN!  But instead, I grabbed a dark chocolate and peanut butter protein bar and ate that in the car.  TOok a low calorie Gatorade with me also.  Enjoyed that.

Lunch - For lunch, I had leftovers of the stuffed pepper from the night before.  Also finished up my low cal gatorade and I think it's likely that I had a granola bar also.  I was really hungry because of the light breakfast and I remember saying how hungry I was and then Timochko tried to give me crap about just making breakfast and I shot back at him about how I don't wake up early because I go to bed too late . . . yadda yadda yadda. . . . . . . . I swore I was gonna make breakfast tomorrow in my mind.  (Spoiler alert, overslept again and didn't make breakfast!)

Snacking - We are getting set to do a chocolate fundraiser for the music students and one of our fundraising reps sent us over an entire box of chocolate bars.  There has to be 30 different bars in there.  That being said, the point is to sample them and decide which ones you want to sell.  Today was sample #1 - Fannie Mae Milk Chocolate bars.  I ate half and I split the other half between Steph and VG.  it was good!!!!!  So far, I'm good if we just choose those!

Dinner - Kristyn cooked again!  She's killin it lately!  We had breaded chicken breast with some veggies and wild rice.  Water was the drink of choice this time around.

Snacking - THere was a lot of small snacking throughout the evening.  I had some goldfish, I had some pretzels, a minute maid frozen lemonade and a piece of cheese.  I'm thinking that was it, but it's possible where was something else.  I struggled a bit on the snacking tonight - Yankees stressed me out.  I REALLY thought Sanchez got all of that ball in the 9th.  Oh well, what are you going to do?  Red Sox won 108 games and that was no fluke. Great team this year.  But I hope they get crushed by Houston.  :-)

See you tomorrow . . . . . . .

Day 114 - 3 meals out

So it's day 114 and we are off!

Breakfast:
For breakfast, I went to the refrigerator to grab some milk and guess what, I forgot to add milk to the shopping list!  SOOOO, no cereal for me.  This led me down a dark path of my Dunkin Donuts typical breakfast.  ARGH.   Epic fail. 

Lunch:
Lunch time came around and Jason and Shane asked if I wanted to go to Farmhouse, which is a restaurant in Cresskill that I have never been to.  It was a professional day, so of course I went!  I had an omelet with red & green peppers, onions, sausage and bacon.  It was not a huge omelet, but very filling.  Also had home fries and 2 slices of buttered toast.  Water was the drink of choice.

Dinner
For Dinner, I had a meeting of the New Jersey Association of Jazz Educators.  This is at the OMega Diner in East Brunswick.  (Actually, may be another town, but I'm not sure.)  So I had a grilled chicken sandwich on whole wheat toast with mashed potatoes and water again.  This is pretty good for me on a diner meal. 

Snack
After dinner, it looked like we were about to  be done, but then everyone ordered dessert.  I order some chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup.  Now let me tell you - the pieces of cake some of these people ordered could have fed small armies.  I REALLY wanted the chocolate cake (with ice cream!) but I held off.  When I'm at the diner, surprisingly, I feel like a couple scoops of ice cream is the dessert that is the least bad in some way.  I know that sounds weird and silly, but have you ever looked at a good Jersey diner dessert display?  It's out of control!  A little ice cream looks like nothing next to that!

And that's it for today.  Thanks for reading.  I'll try to eat some home cooked meals tomorrow since today was a train wreck in terms of that.  All things considered, I think I made decent lunch and dinner choices - although there were maybe a few too many potatoes in the lunch at Farmhouse.

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now!

Days 110-113 - Sort Of . . . .

Today is day 113.  I wrote this big coming back post and then have not posted.  I'm really struggling to find the time.  I am not going to try to remember every move of the past 3 days, but I will tell a few stories from it and I am going to do a full write up of today.  :-)

Story from Thursday - Day 110
So I have lunch duty.  I was good for the first 3 weeks in avoiding all school lunch food - my biggest weaknesses being the cookies, chicken fingers and Mac & Cheese (in that order.)  So 1 month in, I have bought chicken fingers 1 time and I did get cookies pretty much every day for 1 week, but that was it.  So on Thursday, I go to the lunch lady and ask her to put my two cookies on my tab (which is up to $8 now btw) and then I finish them and go to buy a pretzel, which they were out of.  I was disappointed until I literally had this thought in my mind: "OH SHIT, I JUST ATE 2 COOKIES AND DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE IT.  NOW I HAVE TO BLOG ABOUT THIS!  DAMN IT!!!!!"   Old habits die hard.   Gotta pay my bill and get off of my 1 week cookie run.

Story from Saturday - Day 112
So this was a long day with the marching band.  Met the kids at CHS at 5:30am, headed to Rutgers University and had our rehearsal with them and the other high schools, saw the Scarlet Walk show and then it was time for what they called "lunch" on the schedule.  This was actually breakfast - they supplied breakfast sandwiches from Jersey Mike's.  It was great they had Eggs only, egg & cheese, choices of taylor ham, bacon or sausage, egg whites, gluten free - you name it.  Was well set up.  I got taylor ham, egg & cheese. (Didn't really want the cheese, but there was no sandwich with meat left without cheese by the time I got up there.)  So I eat it.  It was pretty good.  No big deal.  May not be the healthiest, but it was what they had and let's be real - not a big deal.  I'm sitting there with my staff and I say "ok, I'm gonna go feel out if I'll look too gluttenous to ask for a 2nd sandwich."  I start to stand up and I literally just stop myself and say "DAMN IT!  I CAN'T GET A 2ND SANDWICH BECAUSE THEY I'LL HAVE TO BLOG ABOUT IT!"  I was so disappointed!  I could have gone ahead with it because the sandwiches were actually only 1/2 sandwiches if you consider it was half of a very long roll, BUT I figured that there was really no need at all for this 2nd sandwich outside of my personal desire to have another.  So I skipped it.

ON TO TODAY - SUNDAY - DAY 113

Breakfast - after yesterday - I need to sleep!!!  And sleep I did!  Sleeping until 9am with 2 kids under two is like sleeping until 1pm on a Sunday in college when you are hungover.  It was glorious!  So we had planned to go to Secor Farms with the kids for pumpkin picking.  Rather than hold the process up at home, I stopped at Petracco's and got a bagel and a Red Bull.  (I know I know - I'm gonna slow down on the Red Bulls again.  I'm in a little Red bull relapse but I'm coming out of it, I promise.

Snacking at Secor - I was good.  They have these DELICIOUS apple cider cinnamon sugar donuts.  I know they are great because I've had them in the past.  Kristyn went to get one and asked if I wanted one and I lied and said NO.  So I didn't get one.  I had 1 bite of hers and really regretted not getting one, but now that I'm home - I'm glad about it.  Then she grabbed a coffee at Dunkin' and I stayed in the car.  2 for 2!

Lunch - As soon as I got home, I housed 2 pieces of Yellow American cheese because I just needed something quick!  About an hour later, I finally got to eating lunch.  We were out of leftovers and I had this Healthy Choice Power Bowl that Kristyn likes.  I made it.  Lots of Sodium, which is the thing that I end up having a little more of as I avoid calories and fat grams.  Ya know, not many decent tasting things are lacking in calories, fat carbs, sugars, sodium and everything else.  I typically look at calories the most and sodium is often somewhat high.  The good news is that I don't eat a lot of these frozen things anymore.  BUT even if I did, realize that even a high in sodium healthy choice meal is soooooo much better than having chicken fingers and french fries, no?    Anyway, here's a photo of the meal I had.

To be honest, I didn't really love it.  It was OK and I guess it had some things in it that are supposed to be good for you but it was a little dry for me, not tasty enough.  I prefer the Santa Fe Rice and Beans one from Smart Ones.  I would eat this is I was stuck but didn't really feel it.  Kristyn seems to love it.  So don't go by me!  Got these at Costco.

Snacking - I ended up having 2 more pieces of cheese and about half a serving of goldfish.  I didn't realize we had goldfish but a HUGE-ASS box was just chillin on the counter, so I stuck the ol' hand in for some.  A serving is 55 fishies.  So I think I had about half of that. I also had a rice krispie treat at some point.

Dinner - Mrs. Verderese made a nice dinner tonight!  Stuffed Peppers with ground turkey and a mixture of stuff to make it taste good.  :-)  It was awesome!  For some reason, the photo did not upload to my computer, so I can't share it.  Oh well . . . . . .   It was healthy, that's for sure!

That was it for today.  I didn't snack at night.  No need.  I actually did lots of work tonight - started a grad class online about using Google Classroom.  Good stuff!

Days 87-109 - A little break, but I'M BACK!!!!!

Diet is a dirty word.   (It's also 4 letters, which is usually not good.)  To say that I'd been on a "diet" for 86 days would be an interesting way to say it, and an inaccurate way also.  The word diet implies limitations, sacrifice, avoidance, torture!  A better way to describe a long term diet would be "Lifestyle Change."  This includes making better choices, creating, trying new things and improving habits.  For the first 86 days of my daughter's life, I started the trend toward lifestyle changes.  I did GREAT for about 30-40 days.  Then I did fairly well for a few weeks.  Then Vacation and the end of summer came and I did OK.  All the way through, I never slipped back completely into the old lifestyle.  Instead of eating healthy once in awhile and falling back on bad foods, I made bad choices once in awhile and fell back on better choices.  I would say that this was a successful run. I lost 21 pounds and felt great.

For the past 23 days, I needed a break from the blogging.  It is a lot of work and  I like to do a good job of it, make it entertaining for you to read.  Did you know I was averaging about 375 views per day?  That really helped keep me on track.  The past few weeks, I have fallen back on SOME bad habits.  My breakfast is one that I have not been able to shake since school started up again.  BUT my crazy awesome wife has been cooking a lot, meaning lots of healthy dinner and lunch leftovers.  I have tried to keep up on the water drinking instead of lots of diet soda - keeps me hydrated in a good way - when i drink more water, I feel more refreshed and usually make better food choices.  Part of why I stopped writing was the amount of time it takes and I've been overwhelmed at work.  The other part is that I was making at least 1 bad choice almost every day and I didn't think the purpose of the blog was to make excuses every single day about what I was eating.  I didn't need to justify it every day.  AND I didn't think that was what you were all trying to read about.  What I will say is that 23 days went by since my last write-up and I have lingered in the same weight zone - going up or down 2-3 pounds at max at any given time.  But it's not about the weight.  Sure I have kept it off by not going off the reservation at all with my eating, but I definitely don't feel as good as when I was making better choices more often.  SOOOOO, I'm ready to get back on the train. 

I'm not starting over at day 1, because I don't feel like I have failed the last 23 days.  I just haven't done AS WELL and I have not written about it.  When I think about the long term journey, my intentions are to lose 50 pounds.  I am currently down 19.8 and it has happened over the course of 109 days.  Sure, I was there 30+ days ago, but the days that have passed since then still exist.  They are part of the long term project.  I slipped up and have not been doing great, but I did not fall off the wagon.  So here we are.  I've actually had some requests to get back to it (the blog, anyway.)  People have told me they miss it and others have just inquired as to how I've been doing.  It's motivating to share it with people and I guess when it's going well, people enjoy reading about positive stories. 

I'm going to do my best to keep it up daily, keep it entertaining, and make as many good choices as I can. 

THE BREAK MATH

While I was on my break, I kind of came up with an informal math theory of food choices.  80/20.  80% good choices + 20% other options will lead to long term positive results.  Now due to allowing the 20% of imperfections, that may bring my productivity to 60% BUT it is a better formula for long term results.  It may take me 6 months to lose 20 pounds  this way instead of 4 months (random numbers I just made up) but the post-weight-loss-fall-out will be much easier to deal with because I will not have starved my brain of pizza, ice cream, cookies or other things I love . . . . . . 20% of the time is the key.  If I cut everything out cold turkey, then when I reach my goal and reintroduce everything back, it will all just pile back on.  

So J-DOC is back! (I think.)  Back on track.  Day 110 coming up.  Wish me luck and happy reading!

80/20.  Here we go!

Days 85 - 86 - A couple early days off

Starting Weight - 229.7 - Total Lost - 18.6

Monday, September 10, 2018
Breakfast - Cheerios and 2% Milk.  Ya know - i really like cheerios!  :-)

Lunch - I really can't remember what the heck I had for lunch today.  I mean, I know I'm writing this the next day, but usually I can remember 1 day back.  What the heck is wrong with me?  I know that we went to the mall after we ate.  I remember stopping at the cleaners and at Clifton City Hall to drop off an invoice for a gig next week . . . . . definitely hit some traffic, took a nap in the car with the kids, went to Old Navy, but what the heck did I eat for lunch?  Not a cold cut sandwich because we are out of most of that.  It was not a breakfast sandwich because I didn't make eggs.  Not peanut butter - don't remember licking the knife clean.

Dinner - I had some left over chicken from the tailgate that I didn't cook so Kristyn and I had a few small pieces of chicken each and a black bean burger.  Good, simple, tasty.  Through the chicken on the stove and the black bean burgers in the air fryer.  Quick meal.

Snacking - went a little overboard with some pretzels and goldfish while watching SVU.  Would have been wise to maybe have stopped after the first serving, but I went for a 2nd.  It was so good!!!!!


Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Breakfast - Cheerio's and 2% milk

Lunch - So i had to run out and deal with a few things at Home Depot, drop something in the mail and go to the UPS store.  While at the UPS store, I stopped at this really good pizza shop.  It used to be pretty crappy but they have revamped and they are awesome now - Richfield Pizza in Clifton on the corner of Clifton Ave and Allwood Rd.  Now let's be clear.  I think they are an awesome stop now.  I've spent a very long time trying to figure out what the #2 pizzeria in Clifton was, behind Bruno's of course.  I think this place takes the cake.  If you are looking for some place to supplement your pizza intake, try them out.  But as good as they are - under no circumstance would you replace Bruno's with them.  Bruno's still - by far - best pizza around.  THere is nothing that can touch that square slice.  NOTHING!  Anyway, long story short - I had 2 slices and a diet coke.

Dinner - Kristyn's new favorite meal is in effect.  We had cilantro/lime shrimp with quinoa, shredded carrots, black beans and corn.  Awesome as usual. And had just enough for some leftovers for tomorrow.

Snacking - 2 pieces of cheese late night while watching SVU.

Weigh-In Preview - down to 228.5 on Wednesday morning.

Days 82-84 - Marching Band, Marching Band and Football Sunday!

Starting Weight - 227.2

So I don't have all the details from the past 3 days, to be honest.  It was a very busy 3 days and I just don't feel like working that hard to remember.  BUT I can certainly talk about the highlights and lessons of the past few days, how about that?

So Friday, Saturday and Sunday - the weekend of September 7-9.  It was an eventful weekend I'd say.  A busy one, a fun one, one that included lots of hard work . . . . .

Friday, September 7, 2018 - Friday was obviously a full day of school, capped off with Pep Rally 9th period and then a home football game.  I'm pretty sure I did Cheerios in 2% milk in the morning, so that was ok.  For lunch, I ended up hitting Denaro's with a coworker, Mike.  First Denaro's run of the school year.  WE are good for 1-2 of these a month.  Ever been there?  In Dumont?  Their sandwiches are great and really inexpensive.  I always get a Turkey, Pepperoni and Yellow American Cheese (1/2 sandwich) because that is PLENTY considering how much meat they put on it.  Z and I split an order of french fries and I usually get a can of diet soda.  I followed this formula and I'll tell you, it filled me the heck up!  I used to be able to house that sandwich with no problem, but it really filled me.  That's a good sign.  I guess that eventually, I'm gonna have to skip the ol' fries since the sandwich is plenty.  For Dinner, I had brought my leftovers of last night - the walnut (or was it pecan?) crusted chicken with broccoli and baked potato.  Popped it in the microwave at 5pm so I can shovel it down real quick before marching band.  THen at 8:30, during halftime - I realized that I never ate it.  This was not a happy moment.  So I did the only logical thing, I ate 2 containers of Mac & Cheese from the snack bar.  (This was a total of 440 calories) so not really that bad in the grand scheme of things.  Yes, it was 440 completely empty worthless calories, but I had to eat something.  Was not waiting for 10:30 to eat dinner, and I don't like hot dogs at snack stands.)  I also had a water (I think - it's possible it was red gatorade but I'm almost positive it was water.)   Full disclosure - I also got a slurpee on the way home.

As far as the actual day went - in terms of school - the kids did not disappoint!  They did a bang up job at the pep rally - played great, followed all directions very well, had a great attitude, and we had lots of kids, including the football team clapping on 2 and 4 during Birdland!!  THe guard performed their routine well and we capped it off with "Gimme Some Lovin'" for the first time this year, our traditional ending to the pep rally and all team wins.  It was our 2nd game (1st at home) for the season.  Our kids did a great job - so early in the season.  The team killed it and so we got to play Gimme Some Lovin' at the end of the game and the team showed us full support and appreciation for our efforts.  This is something very special about Cresskill - the team and the band - we work together.  You would think this is normal, but all too often the band and the football team think they are in some kind of competition for attention or respect.  The fact of the matter is that we are all there to create a Friday night atmosphere for our kids and community, teach our students about teamwork, hard work and commitment and have some fun while doing it.  Friday night was a great example of that.  Thanks to Coach Quinn and the CHS Football team for continuing to support and appreciate the band as much as we do the same for you.  Video below is of our band playing and the team celebrating Friday night's victory - with full recognition of the band.  Very cool moment.

Saturday, September 8, 2018 - And here we are - Saturday.  Another long day of band, but a totally worthwhile day for sure. 

Let me start off by saying that I had my ol' faithful Dunkin Donuts breakfast.  Let me explain - I had to run out of the house and I had drill to copy for rehearsal.  I did not have time to make a nice breakfast for myself.  I also had a feeling that I would not be eating lunch, so I needed something that would hold me over through a 4 hour rehearsal with marching band.  So I took the opportunity to have my bagel, donut and Red Bull.  Not ideal, but it was what I did.  It may sound like I'm making excuses.  and well . . . . I AM!!!  There really is no excuse to have that breakfast besides the fact that once in awhile, it's just ok.  It is what it is.  It happened.  Not the end of the world.  I just have to continue to make sure I limit this type of intake. 

For lunch, as expected - nothing, so let's fast forward to dinner.  After a solid rehearsal with the band where we worked on the first half of "FIREBIRD," I finally got to eat those leftovers that I was supposed to eat last night.  I had the chicken and the broccoli.  Didn't actually have the potato.  Didn't need it and was not in the mood.  Solid.   After our 12-4 rehearsal was our Cresskill Jr. Football 9/11 ceremony.  We took care of business there and by 7:30 I was on the road home.  I came home to a homecooked meal on the stove, and I proceeded to eat it like an animal.  It was pork, some kind of rice concoction and carrots.  I just ate it right out of the pots and pans on the stove like a real slob.  Everything was fine except for the fact that I just went crazy to town on that rice and could not stop shoveling it into my mouth! 

I don't remember in terms of snacking and stuff for the day.  I'm sure it was not bad.

Sunday, September 9, 2018 - The annual Chris Pelletier/Joe Verderese Giants Game & Tailgate

So every year, Chris and I head to a game.  We have our tailgate beforehand and typically gorge ourselves into oblivion.  This time, I TRIED to keep it under control and I think all things considered, I did'nt go quite as crazy as usual.  Let's see if I can take you through the play by play:

We start around 9am and in the past, it usually began with some donuts or cookies and chips.  We bypassed the baked goods and just munched on some Sour Cream and Cheddar ridgies while waiting for the grill to heat up.  Once the grill was good to go, we threw on our first round of food.  I had marinated some chicken in Peanut Sauce and some more in Buffalo sauce.  Small pieces.  Cooked them up and put on small rolls (cut in half.)  Very small rolls.  I had 3 of these "sandwiches" which were basically 3 bit sandwiches.  Like sliders, really.  Then came the annual lamb - wrapped in Bacon!  Chris never disappoints with this and I think this was likely the best it has ever come out!!!!

                                                                   

After this, we made burgers. I had a burger with 1 slice of taylor ham on it.  

He on the other hand - went crazy!  He had the "Jersey bacon lambuger" with steak and cheese.  

WHAT?????  Yup - a hamburger topped with lamb wrapped in bacon, a piece of steak from our neighbors beef kebobs, 2 slices of asiago cheese, surrounded by a bun made of 2 slices of Taylor Ham.  This was the "Keto-Supreme" burger!!  Guy Fieri - eat your heart out!  (Actually, this meal may just do that!)  

                                                           

In the middle of it all, our tailgate neighbors offered us up some beef kebobs and we kindly obliged.  You can see them here staying warm while we prepared our burgers. 

Could you believe that this was actually a somewhat tame tailgate in terms of food?  ;-)  I left full but not destroyed like usual. In fact, I usually need a nap at the game to recover from the food!  

FYI, also had 3 bud lites and 2 shots of Fireball.  :-)

At the game, I got a pretzel and 2 cookies.  Typically, I get an ice cream and either chicken fingers + fries OR a steak sandwich.  Held off on the extra meal. 

When I came home, Kristyn was dying for some food that didn't require cooking.  The request was for chinese.  We ordered.  I got my typical Chicken & Broccoli with white rice.  Only ate about half of it and that was even kinda forced.  Also had a slice of cheese.  That was the night. 

Ok - so the verdict - Friday and Saturday - decent.  Maintained my weight (+0.4)   Sunday - bad stuff but I'm totally cool.  It was opening day - likely my only tailgate of the year - and I made some choices.  (for the record, we didn't cook everything we brought - I also brought sausage and I only made half the chicken!)  I knew this day would be like this and I'm content with where i went with it.  Could have done without the cookies.  Also could have done without that fumbled punt with 50 seconds left, but hey - beggars can't be choosers.  (Eagles fans - shut it.)  

Weighed in Monday morning up 2.4 pounds.  It's not a real 2.4.  It will be done tomorrow or the next day after I do awesome.  Looking to get a solid, serious week here.  Not a busy week of nights at school, so hopefully I can stay the course this week and make some progress getting below that 227 lb low that I have been stuck at for a few.

PS - I'm pretty impressed at how much I actually remembered!

Thanks for reading.   Check in with you soon!

JOEY V

Day 81 - Perfect Dinner

Weigh-In - 227.3 (-1.6 from yesterday) and down 21.0 overall

Breakfast - Buttered Bagel from Hometown Bagels.  I needed something on the way to work.  I passed up Dunkin and my old "usual" breakfast and just grabbed a quick bagel.  It was a faster stop and of course, minus the Red Bull and Donut.  So while not ideal, best case scenario considering time, cost and intake.

Lunch - Leftover Chili.  YUM!!!!!  Also had a Small packet of fruit snacks

Dinner - This was a perfect meal.  I felt like the Brady Bunch.  Came home from work at 6pm with a fresh, hot cooked meal on the table.  Pecan crusted chicken with a baked potato w/ketchup and broccoli.  Everything was cooked to perfection.  Can't wait for lunch tomorrow!!!

Night-Time Snacking - Rice Krispie Treat and a frozen Lemonade during the opening night Eagles/Falcons game.  Ya know, I had my "Eagles have the worse record in the NFL" post ready to go.  But then - - - - - - yeah, they won.  ARGH.  Oh well, at least the Giants are looking promising this year!  AND at least Julio Jones killed it for me in my league where I forgot about my draft while I was at band camp and the autodraft selected freaking Demarco Murray in the 4th round.  WTF?  A retired player in the 4th round?  C'mon, CBS.  This is a little ridiculous.  At least they made up for it with Dez Bryant in the 6th . . . . . . . . Worst draft ever!  BUT I got Julio Jones at 11 and Tom Brady as my QB, so life could be worse.

Day 80 - Brought 2 leftover meals today!

Weigh-In - 228.9 (-0.4 from yesterday) and down 19.4 overall - matching my low point of weight so far

Breakfast - So I had a morning, in terms of food.  Yesterday was the first day of school.  The Yankees are on the west coast so I had the bright idea to stay up and watch the whole game while catching up on work I need to do for school.  So a 1:30am bedtime - then I didn't fall asleep for about a half hour.  I woke up at 6am and was EXHAUSTED.  I also ran out of protein bars.  I gave in and hit up Dunkin.  Today, Joe ran on Dunkin.  It was old school.  It was a bagel, donut and Red Bull.  I also need to say that I knew the rest of the day, I would be perfect and very busy.  I allowed this breakfast today out of necessity and desire.  It is truly the old school definition of "Joe's Diet of Convenience."  It was convenient to eat at Dunkin today, but then it was convenient to eat AWESOME the rest of the day.

Lunch - Leftover chicken pad thai.  Again in the teacher's caf today.  Good crowd again.  Felt like I was 25 again - eating at the lunch table I ate almost every day of my first 3-4 years.  Our table was VG, Timochko and I today and there were people at every other table also.  Good times and good meal.

Dinner - Since I had marching band tonight, last night, after dinner, Kristyn was nice enough to put the crock pot chili together so that I could have a real dinner tonight.  (Side product is that she also didn't have to cook on a night that I was not home and she was likely very busy!)  So I had the chili which featured sweet potatoes (of course, along with ground beef!)  It was delicious.  It shall be my lunch tomorrow!

Snacking - throughout the day - I remember having a small packet of fruit snacks.  It's very possible that was it, but I'm not really sure.  I also need to say that I had a pack of those fruit snacks yesterday too (after school) that I forgot to report.  It's the "Welch's" fruit snacks from Costco.  BIg box.  The Music Boosters left 2 boxes of them for the marching band.  I told them that hopefully the box would last the directors until our next away game.  :-)

Weigh-In Preview - next morning - I hit the 21 pound mark - 227.3!!  All of my 11 day binge weight is gone.    Onward and downward!


Sorry no photos - I have to be on time to work.  :-)

Day 79 - Back to School, Back to School

Weigh-In - 229.3 (total loss - 19 pounds.) Still up 2 from my best

Breakfast - Well, I didn't exactly wake up early for the first day of school today, but I didn't oversleep!  I got up at 6:15 and wanted to be gone by 6:50.  Not stopping at Dunkin on the way to work will actually get me to work on time, I think!  That being said, I have to wake up better than 6:15 if I want to make breakfast!  Today I just grabbed a protein bar and ate that with a bottle of water on the way to work.  No big thing.

Lunch - I had leftovers of last night's cilantro lime shrimp burrito bowl.  So good!!!  Leftovers rock when your wife cooks awesome meals!  Ya know what was tough - not eating cookies during lunch duty!  This will be a year-long challenge.

Snacking - I had a granola bar at school and also a piece of cheese before dinner

Dinner - Kristyn and I tag-teamed the stove tonight to make chicken pad thai.  Came out really good! And I have leftovers for tomorrow!

Snacking - All Fruit ice pop and a piece of cheese.

Another good day if you ask me!!!  :-)  Trying to get back into drinking a ton of water.  This helps a lot.

Day 78 - Back in the saddle

Weigh-In - 232.1 (Down 16.2 total, but up 4.9 from best weigh-in)

Breakfast - 1.5 egg whites, 1 whole egg with 2 pieces of turkey sausage + 1.5 small glasses of Trop 50.  That's a 225 calorie breakfast, and I'm quite full and content.

Lunch - 3 thin slices of turkey, 6 pepperoni (4 on sandwich and 2 in my belly!) and 3 slices of yellow american (2 on sandwich and one extra) on an everything bagel thin.  Toasted on the George Foreman Grill.

Snacks - 2 raspberry lemonade ices (70 calories each) and a handful of peanuts

Dinner - Kristyn made those delicious cilantro lime shrimp taco bowls today with quinoa. Nothing bad about this meal!  Shrimp, quinoa, black beans, corn, shredded carrots, lime, cilantro.  Awesome meal.  Squeezed it in during my school fantasy draft in between both kids freaking out for no good reason at various times.  Interesting night.  :-)

Snacking - a Rice Krispie Treat held me over for awhile then I had an "All-Fruit" ice pop.  :-)

Not a bad first day back if I do say so myself.  Now I gotta get through my drives to and from work tomorrow without the ol' dunkin and 7-11 gag . .. . . .

Preview Weigh-In for tomorrow - down to 229.3, which is down 2.8 pounds.  Still up 2 from before my binge-fest, but it's amazing how easy it can be when I actually try!  Hoping to have a good streak to get me to 25.

Day 67-77 - Complete and Utter Failure (BUT I'M BACK!)

Weigh In - 227.4 (-0.8 from yesterday) and total down 20.9 pounds.

So I wanted to check back in with everyone to apologize for not being on top of things the past 11 days.  I fell off the wagon, completely.  There were moments where I sort of acted like I was trying, but for the most part, I didn't really try.  There were good meals in there, but that was really just because either Kristyn cooked them or because I happen to like cooking now once in a while.

So I'm not going to try to explain to you how I did well "for me"  or "Considering what I usually eat" because I really didn't try that hard at all.

I gained back about 5 pounds or so.  Not the end of the world, considering I'll be able to drop that back off in a few days and then some more, but I'm frustrated because I have not made positive progress in the past 11 days.

I am getting back on track immediately.  I made eggs with turkey sausage for breakfast with Trop 50 and just finished it.  I have some portion-controllable stuff for lunch and I'm cooking dinner tonight, so we should be all good to get back on.

I fell back onto the Dunkin/Red Bull train a little bit.  Not a ton, but enough that it's not a good thing.  With work starting tomorrow, I have to watch myself that I don't fall into the trap.

I've fallen back into the 7-11 trap at night on the way home from band camp.  I was "rewarding"myself for a good and long day at work.  Bad Habit!!!

I slipped back into having 2 bad topping pizza slices and lots of diet soda instead of water.

I've also binged on some snacks and eaten later at night.

So this is a small list of my weaknesses and what I failed at the past 11 days.  I'm not being hard on myself, but I do know that the first 66 days are going to be a complete waste if I slip back into the old habits.  I'm on a mission and a month from now, I will have forgotten about this rough patch, but I am not going to ignore it and skip it in my blog.  They count as part of my diet because it's part of a much bigger picture.  Not a temporary thing.  I don't need to "Start over" or restart at day 67.  These were real days on the journey and I can just hope that I am tough enough to get the next 66 days to be as solid as the first 66.  Wish me luck!  I'M BACK!!!!!

Day 66 - 20 pounds down! Big Milestone

Weigh-In - 228.2 (-1.1 from yesterday) Total Down - 20.1 pounds!!!

So I have hit the 20 pound mark!  This is amazing!  An exciting milestone that I've been looking forward to.  It sounds like a big number and pumps me up to keep going.  This also means that I'm about ready to unveil "Stage Two" of my plan.  The vacation delayed this a little and also clouded some of the plan because I have already started on parts of it.  When I have time, I will detail the added rules of stage two so you can see how I want to progress from here.  Just a few guidelines I want to give myself.  Not rules, not restrictions - just guidelines that will help me avoid flatlining my progress.

Breakfast - I meant to grab a protein bar but I forgot!  All the sudden, I was on the way to work and had forgotten to eat breakfast.  Luckily, it was getting late so I worked through the temptation to stop somewhere and I got to work unscathed.  I didn't eat breakfast (not on purpose) but it is what it is.

Lunch - Before I knew it, 12:30 had come - section leader meeting and then rehearsal at 1.  It was 1:30 before I got to try to shovel lunch down, but I had some delicious pecan crusted chicken that Kristyn had made for dinner the night before.  That with a small baked potato and broccoli was my hearty lunch.  I just grabbed a bite here and there when I could during rehearsal until I was done.

Dinner - For dinner, I took the staff to Dante's for a staff meal.  I had some things to take care of at work, so they went ahead of me and ordered real food.  I took the opportunity to just grab a couple slices a pizza.  1 plain slice and 1 thin square vodka sauce slice.  Just what the doctor ordered.

I also got my exercise in today, in a strange form.  The band field was partially flooded and I wanted to try to help it a little for tonight and also try to spread out the puddles for quicker drying before tomorrow.  I was able to get a squeegee thingy from the custodians and I went to work pushing water around the field.  It didn't exactly SOLVE the problem for tonight but I had a good feeling about tomorrow.  Believe it or not, the photo below was an IMPROVEMENT!

So at 8pm, we went back inside to finish up the day with some music.  We no sooner started playing and all the sudden, DOWNPOUR!!!!  Now I had left something up at the field so I had to go back.  By the time I got there, the field was literally a swamp.  All the moving around of water I did - worthless!  I can't see  a situation where we would be able to use this field again tomorrow.  Maybe I'll find out I'm wrong when I get in, but eek!  I've never actually seen the field DURING the storm.  I always see it the day after.  Maybe it will drain.  Otherwise, there will be a LOT of music rehearsal tomorrow. Will keep you posted.    Day 2 was a great success and Julie and I came in 3rd place in the water balloon toss.

Next morning weigh-in - 227.4 (down .8 from today's start)

Day 65 - BAND CAMP UNDERWAY!

Weigh-In - 229.3 - Total lost - 19 pounds.  (-2.9 from yesterday)
I know this seems extreme, but coming off of vacation where I kind of "artificially' gained some weight, coming back to a much better diet for a few days, that weight just melts away.  So My prediction of getting back here by Friday was wrong!  I'm there!  Onward and downward. . . . . .

Breakfast - I told the people at Dunkin that I would come there once a month for an "old school breakfast" of mine.  I know on vacation I went to Dunkin a few times, but I'm not counting that.  Since I missed my 2 month J-DOC anniversary on 8/18, I went today and saw my old buddies.  I got my chocolate Frosted donut, toasted bagel with extra butter and Red Bull.  Ya know what's crazy about the whole Red Bull thing?  I really like the taste.  But I was drinking so many of them (every day) and I was not feeling great that I really didn't necessarily feel good when I drank them.  Now that I rarely drink them, I like them even more again when I do!  Is that what they say . . . . "absence makes the heart grow fonder?"  By the way, this is also the best buttered bagel I've had a Dunkin in forever.  Also grabbed a selfie with my Red Bull Guy.  He busts my chops every time he sees me.  Been trying to get me to stop drinking that stuff for months. 

Lunch - Since breakfast was pretty big and at like 10:30 or so, I ended up forgetting and/or not needing to eat lunch.

Dinner - Last of the leftover cilantro lime stuff Kristyn made.  This one had chicken again.  I like it more every time I eat it!  :-)   Also made a peanut butter pie for the marching band staff.  Figured I needed to feed them a little bit more this year.  Was a good addition to the day.  I had 1 piece.

Snacking - On the way home after a long day of work, I earned myself a Slurpee.  This was not a stress eat, a lack of willpower or senseless eating.  This was a reward because I've been working almost around the clock the past 48 hours to get band camp ready.  The kids were making fun of me for all the notifications they got on Google Classroom the past couple days and also the fact that some of them come at like 2am!  So if I want a Slurpee when I leave work at 9:15pm, I'm entitled to a Slurpee.  I have to make sure I don't slip back into the daily slurpee routine, but 1-2 a week will not kill me.  1-2 a day - that may eventually kill me. 

Morning Weigh-In - Came in at 228.2 for the next morning weigh-in!  WAHOO! 

Side Notes About Band Camp - So today marked the start of my 14th year as band director at Cresskill High School and 16th year overall (2 as assistant director to Tom Vernaleken.)  The band is about half the size that it was when I took over which makes me sad at times but I will say that it is much easier to manage this way!  AND the kids are improving every year.  Yesterday was a very successful first day of camp and it actually went by very fast.  We are doing a show including 3 songs with "BIRD" in the title, the only way you may find Maynard, the Beatles and Stravinsky in the same marching show!  Birdland, Blackbird and Firebird.  That means I get to hear Birdland every day for the next 2 months.  I'm cool with this!   (Tom White - I told the kids about our epic night with One More Trip To Birdland and ALF back in high school.  They REALLY think I'm weird now.  (As if they did not already!)

Very pumped about this season.  We have lots of great new faces, very happy about all the returning ones and a great work ethic to start.  Staff was happy, leadership was happy - and for the first time ever, we put drill on the field at the first rehearsal, thanks to all the great work the section leaders did with their kids over the summer at their weekly sectionals.  Looking forward to what's to come with the 2018 Cresskill High School Marching Band!

Day 64 - Light Eating Today - Big Difference

Weigh-In 232.2  - down 16.1 total (-1.2 from yesterday)

Breakfast - Just a protein bar.  Lots to do today!  That's gonna be the next 4 days.  Lots of work to do, strange schedule, not a lot of time for overeating.  Band Camp is a diet's dream come true!

Lunch - Leftover cilantro lime chicken from yesterday.  Yes - Chicken.  Ran out of shrimp so real quick cooked up some chicken last night to throw in here.  I did it as a bowl.  No bread at all!  Yes sir!

Snacking - Stress eat time.  So let me set the scene.  Picture it.  Sicily - 1922.

Orrrrr, Cresskill - 2018.  I arrive back from a nice vacation to my band room. I know that the floors had been waxed and that means that EVERYTHING was taken out, put back in and likely unplugged.  For some reason though, I'm still surprised every year by this.  This year, I had a good excuse.  I was on vacation.  Out of sight, out of mind.  But wait, there's more.  Once I realized that I can't print, use the smartboard or even the computer in the band room, I headed to my office to use the laptop and saw that the printer in there was plugged in.  EUREKA!!!!! - but alas - I had brought that computer home to write music over the summer and forgot it in my dining room. So Now I have to figure this out.  How am I going to print stuff.  I can go to C-4- the teachers hangout room with the computers hooked up to the copy machine.  I'll print direct.  But no, that machine prints out smudges at random which makes printing drill and music pretty impossible.  So how about the library?  They have computers and a copy machine.  Ok - - - - - OH WAIT: can't go that way - they are waxing the floor.  I literally have to walk ALL THE WAY AROUND THE SCHOOL to go 30 feet.  Ok, so I get to the library and the 3 computers by the copy machine - well, they are GONE!  Luckily, there are a million more computers which happen to be hooked up to a printer.  But the printer was blocked by like 15 laptop carts.  I squeezed my fat ass back there to find out that there was no paper.  No problem, there is plenty of paper across the room.  Finally get this all set up, jump on Google Drive, start printing and i'm on my way.  Now somewhere in the middle of this whole thing, I was in my office, opened up the freezer and saw that there was an ice cream cookie sandwich in there that I had forgotten about.  Alice Apice made it and somehow I ended up with it in my freezer.  I guess I had grabbed my lunch and eaten it in my office and never got to this delight.  So anyway, I was like "EFF THIS!  I'M EATING A COOKIE ICE CREAM SANDWICH!  THAT WILL SHOW THESE PRINTERS WHO'S BOSS!"  Well, I don't know what that solved, but it really did calm me down.  Side note - I now love working in the library.  Printer AND copy machine within spitting distance?  And with google drive/docs/etc, other than writing music, I can do everything I need from any computer I want.  I dig.  Love the library!  And for those of you who don't know,  that is stay its like getting things done at school in the summer :) 

On a side note,  huge props to the custodial staff for knocking off a HUGE to do list every summer and getting the school up and running every September by day 1.

And by the way, if you were wondering who, in fact, is the boss?  It's Angela.

Dinner - I was supposed to eat another cilantro lime chicken, but instead I had 2 slices of pizza.  Why?  Because it was our section leader meeting the night before band camp and I decided to feed the kids.  They have worked hard this summer, so what's a few pies?  I can't just let them eat it!  Normally, this is a killer for me - at least 4 slices!  But I held back and did good.

And that's it for today.  Kept it light and easy.   Weigh in tomorrow: 229.3. Officially dropped the vacation weight and the pre-vacation weight in 2 days :)  now another big push coming, I can feel it.

Day 63 - Back to Reality

Weigh-In - 233.5 (down 15.8 total)

Today is a start to trying to get back to normalcy, whatever that is!  I was 2 for 3 today, so let's check it out!

Breakfast - Just a dark chocolate, Peanut Butter Protein bar.  Pictured below in case any of you forgot what I was talking about.  These are quite filling believe it or not.

  

Lunch - So I went to a sports collector's show in White Plains from about 11:30am to 3:00pm.  I had a chance to meet Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers and Juan Marichal, should be Hall of Famer Luis Tiant, '69 Mets Champs Ed Kranepool and Ron Swoboda, and freebies Greg Luzinski and Ralph Garr.  The problem with this is the time frame.  I had my protein bar on the way up to White Plains but by 2pm, I was STARVING!  The only thing they had there was Nathan's and I knew I would not be passing anywhere on my way home either, so This was my only choice.  I had a chicken sandwich, fries and just a few sips of a very nasty flat orange soda.

Snacking - just a piece of my peanut butter pie that was left over from before vacation.  :-)  Also a piece of cheese.

Dinner - Well, the honeymoon is over.  Band camp is on the horizon and my streak of being the cook of the house is coming to a close.  I'm not in any way saying that I will not help, cook or anything else.  What I am saying is that there are going to be days where I can have nothing to do with cooking because I'm not home at all. Kristyn knew this was coming and started wrapping her head around getting herself back on the cooking train and she started off with a bang.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp Tacos

• So the shrimp was from a frozen bag - which was great!  Was about $5/pound and for $15, we got through 3 good meals with it!  Defrost and de-vein.  Then marinate in a sauce that Kristyn put together - I know it had cilantro, lime, cumin and likely a few other things.  Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes.
• Quinoa - just follow directions on the box
• Black Beans - from a can - just open and rinse
• Shredded Carrots - no prep
• Cilantro - cut small
• Avocado slices (I did not have this)
• And a lime to squeeze on top
• Your choice of making this as a bowl, on a lettuce wrap or a regular wrap.  

I chose to make 2 whole wheat wraps.  Not ready for the lettuce wrap thing yet.  But this was so good that I will likely just put it in a bowl next time and forfeit the wraps completely.

I'm pretty sure that was it for the day.  Wanted to make sure that lunch didn't screw me for the day.  Oh wait - I had some grapes!  Forgot about that.   

Next Day Weigh-In - 232.3 (-1.2 from today!)  Good start back.

Days 58-62 - The 2nd Half of Vacation

Hello all,

My apologies for disappearing for a few days.  I was not hiding anything from you, I was just enjoying vacation and didn't pull out my computer all that much. Was able to check my email, Facebook, Google Classroom, etc from my phone so the only reason I would really take out my computer was to blog (and a 4 hour school work binge one night from 10pm-2am, but we won't talk about that.)

I'm going to try to recap at least the meals at this point from the past bunch of days.  There is no way I can really give you a play by play of the snacking that went on for 2 reasons.

1 - it is 5 days I have to remember.
2 - I really was picking at stuff all the way through the day, every day!  There were 9 of us in that house.  There was a lot of food there!

Ok, let's see what I can remember.  Here goes nothing:

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Day 58 - Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Breakfast - Today I experimented with making my own home-made "McGriddle."  It was only for me because we had settled into a routine of breakfast being every man for themselves.  Since Joey wakes up early, sleeping in was not a thing for me, so I cooked myself a nice meal.  So as a bun, I made 2 syrup infused pancakes.  (next time I have to put in more syrup!)  Then I made 2 turkey sausage links and 2 egg whites/1 whole egg - scrambled.  This is the result!  Pretty awesome sandwich.  And I maintain that although it sounds like a nightmare for a diet, it's SO MUCH BETTER than getting it at McDonald's!

Lunch - I made some leftovers before we went out for the afternoon.  There were 3 small pieces of chicken and some egg noodles that I grabbed to hold me over.  BUT then I went and got gas.  What's the big deal you say?  Well, the gas station happened to be at a ROYAL FARMS!!  So I did the only logical thing.  I ordered 1 single chicken finger.  It was glorious in all it's saltiness!  BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!  Kristyn ended up going in and getting herself a 3-piece snack and it was too much for her so I had a 2nd chicken tender.  Ok, I guess things could be worse, right?

Dinner-ish - We had an amazing time out with the family on a catamaran/pontoon/whatever it was called boat.  Uncle Bill and Aunt JoAnn set it all up  - the ride, the food, the drinks - soup to nuts.  It was beautiful!  An awesome event for us.  It was my family, Karen's Family, Peter's family, Michael Mom, Aunt Arlene, and of course, UB and AJ.  While on this trip, I was going to keep it light the best I could, but I ended up having 1 brownie, 2 cookies, a few chips a bud lite and an Angry Orchard.  To my recollection, that was it.   Not bad for the kiddie's first time on a boat!  Check out this motley crew!

Late Night Stuff - Everyone was going to the boardwalk, but the bewitching hour was upon us with Joey, so we stayed back.   I'm sure I had a mini-ice cream cone or something, but that was probably it.  I feel asleep kinda early on the couch and got back to the next day.
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Day 59 - Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Breakfast - For the life of me, I can not remember what I ate for breakfast this morning.  I know that I went to the supermarket bright and early and that's all I remember. . . .. Maybe it will come to me later.

Lunch - For lunch, we went to Grotto's for our one and only stop there this week.  It was my only pizza all week.  The problem is that I made the most of it, and by that I mean I made the WORST of it!  Pictured below you see a pizza pie.  Mike Draney had 2 slices, Kristyn had 2 slices and I had the rest!   Yup, I popped off half a pie for lunch. I have no regrets . . . . oh wait, yes I do!  That's RIDICULOUS!  Normal humans don't do that!  I will say that Grotto's pizza gets considerably worse as it cools off. Tastes so much better when it's hot and dangerous!

Dinner - This dinner tasted like 143 Ploch Rd in Clifton.  Mom made macaroni.  We had rigatoni with meatballs and sweet sausage.  It tasted like old times, that's for sure.  Pictured below is my first plate.  The 2nd plate was considerably less, but still no needed.  You'll learn about me that if I'm sitting at a table with people for an extended period of time, I have a real problem stopping the intake!  If I'm alone, I finish and get back to my work.  When I'm with a group, I can't watch people eat.  Ask my mom - I've been like this since I was a baby.  At the restaurants, they always had to give me cheerios when I saw the other tables getting their food.  :-)  From the looks of the photo, it would seem that I also had a Blue Point Toasted Lager.

Snacking - I had the bright idea to make fresh chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches with Breyer's Chocolate ice cream.  But while I was at it, I just made an entire tub of Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies.  In the end, I only ate half of one because they were HUGE and since we had more company, we didn't have enough to go around anyway, so everyone kinda cut them in half and dug in.  I can't believe I don't have a photo of this.  Thanks to Alice Apice for the inspiration to make these!!!!!  I also ate a cookie or 2 while I was "Checking to make sure they were cooked thoroughly."  :-)
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Day 60 - Thursday, August 16, 2018
Breakfast - Ahhhhhh, my wife shamed me and went out for a walk while I sat on my ass and did nothing.  But when she came back, she brought the best present you can ever bring:  A dozen donuts from the Fractured Prune.  This is a specialty donut shop that makes awesome concoctions with their donuts - fresh on premises.  They were still warm when she got home with them!  I think all in all, I had 1.5 or 2 donuts.  Reese's Peanut butter donuts, Smores donuts, I can't even remember all the options, but it's the type of donut that you cut a half or a quarter of the donut and taste test them all.  Oh, I think another was called "Death by chocolate!"  It was great!  What a nice surprise!

                                    

Lunch - For lunch, we had a BBQ and Uncle Bill and Aunt JoAnn's place.  Always the great host and hostess, we had a relaxing day at the pool with some good food and drinks.  (Well, as relaxing as it can get with an 18-month old running around by the pool, up and down steps and a ramp, and even playing his own little game of chicken by leaning into or trying to climb down the stairs into the pool!)  So it started with some tostitos and some pretzel nuggets from Philadelphia Pretzel Factory (at least, I figure they were from there!)  Then for actual lunch, I had a hamburger and a sausage sandwich.  Really should have just stuck to one, but again - social and long term eating situations - I have trouble with them!  I had a couple diet sprites today.  Stayed away from the beer.  What a good boy.  :-)  But then . . . . dun dun duuuunnnnn!!!  Came my worst moment of the week.  THE BINGE!  I must have popped 15-20 of those pretzel nuggets while waiting to head out.  They were just sitting there, on a tray.  And you know how big those trays are - you can eat 10 and it doesn't even look like you are making a dent in it.  I  just kept eating them.  15-20 may even be a low estimate.  I really have no idea.  I just kept going.  It was one of my worst moments of the past 60 days.  Oh well, worse things in life, right?

Dinner - I guess at this point, the pretzels were my dinner, but this was our night to go out without the kids. The Grandma's were babysitting so Kristyn & I, Karen & Eric and Peter & Laura all went out.  We headed out to the Rusty Rudder to see the band "Love Seed Mama Jump" which was a recommendation 2 years ago by Kristyn's old principal.  But upon arrival, we found out that they had stopped serving food!  We went across the street and ate at some place that I don't remember the name of.  I didn't want to overeat, being 10pm at this point, so I got an order of buffalo wings and called it a day.  Not the healthiest choice, but 8 small wings - not bad for me in that situation.  I also had a Bud Lite.  

Late Night - Back to the Rusty Rudder and I was feeling like a gambling man - so I decided to drink a lot and pray that Joey slept in so I can sleep it off.  :-)  All told, I had 3 long island iced teas, 2 beers and a jello shot.  But my LIT's were a new concoction I made up called the "Bull-Shit Iced Tea."  This was an LIT but instead of coke, RED BULL and instead of tequila, WHISKEY!  So the total is Vodka, Gin, Rum, Whiskey, Triple Sec, Sour Mix and Red Bull.  I gotta tell you, this was AWESOME!  And it definitely did the trick.  :-)  We had a great time and closed out the place with a well-needed night out without the kids.  And Karen had her first ever trip in an Uber!!!   This photo is all you are getting from this night.  Sorry!    

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Day 61 - Friday, August 17, 2018
Breakfast - Yes, the morning after.  How did I feel for this one?  Surprisingly not bad.  :-) Believe it or not, we were up and at 'em bright and early and left for the beach around 8:30am.  But it was abundantly clear that a Dunkin Donuts run was in us.  I went old school with a chocolate frosted donut and a plain toasted bagel with butter.  I didn't want a Red Bull though so I ended up with a Red Gatorade.

Lunch - We stopped at this place on the boardwalk and I got a BBQ chicken Sandwich and another Gatorade.  Red of course.

Dinner - I needed to get back to eating home made food (and spending less money) so our last night on vacation was Turkey Breast with Broccoli Mac & Cheese, 1/2 a baked potato (although everyone else had sweet potato,) Brown Rice and Broccoli.  Good meal!

After dinner, we hit up the boardwalk and I stayed away from it all!  But when we got home, I had 2 scoops of peanut butter chocolate ice cream.  And I had also bought a fresh peanut butter PB Cup at one of those awesome candy stores.  So I told Kristyn that if she didn't remind me that I wanted to eat it tonight, I'd be very upset.  Unfortunately, she reminded me right after my ice cream.  So, double dessert time!  

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Day 62 - Friday, August 17, 2018
Breakfast - We had to pack and be gone by 10am, so all the food was packed, the dishes were washed, and that meant we didn't eat until after we left.  Dunkin again.  Donut, Bagel, blah blah blah.  NO Red Bull.  Just a water.  :-)

Lunch - Hit Burger King on the way home. Unlike the drive in, I just ate.  I hate a chicken sandwich and fries (medium) with Fanta Orange Zero.  Again, I've done much worse.  Usually, I get the largest size, a sprite and a burger or chicken nuggets on the side.

Dinner - After a long drive home and a supermarket run to come, all I wanted was some pizza.  BUT Kristyn was a good influence on me so instead, I had a small bowl of gluten free pasta and a little turkey and broccoli mac & cheese leftovers. Thanks K-Mart!
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Vacation Round Up - well, that's it!  I had a hell of a vacation.  If you read this and were disappointed in all my failures, I prefer to point you to all the times where I succeeded while on vacation.  Every successful meal was one less failure and on Vacation that's all you can ask for.  I think I did more than my fair share to try to stay on track.  You can't completely be great on vacation, no matter how hard you try.  I'm not making excuses at all, but I am not going to call this trip a disaster because I had some bad meals or days.  Could have been better, could have been worse, but I tried at least half of the time and that's pretty good.

Also remember, there was lots of snacking in here that I did not account for.  Usually it was a mini-ice cream cone, a small cinnamon or white powdered donut or a few frozen grapes.  Nothing huge, but I can't remember when/where/how much.  It was just a long week to remember.  

It was Giuliana's first time on a trip and on the beach.  It was the first time that Joey and Giuliana got to spend a whole week with their cousins - and with young kids always around.  My first family vacation with Mom and Karen (and my dad was even around for parts of it) since Myrtle Beach in High School when our car broke down at like 11pm in the middle of Virginia and we had to sleep in the parking lot of a car dealership because there were no hotels available!!!

It was great to have UB and AJ take such good care of us and it was very nice to see the Livera/Draney/Verderese/Sassano crew here and there during our trip.

Huge thanks to Mom for taking us on her trip and congrats to her on her retirement from the public schools where she was a secretary forever - between Montclair State, Wood-Ridge, Clifton and whatever the list of things she did before we were born.  Well deserved retirement and what a great way to kick it off.
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Weigh-In at home - so I'm gonna spill the beans and if you made it all the way through this blog post, you deserve to know where it all went.  I weighed in Sunday morning at 233.5 pounds which means I gained a total of 3 pounds on vacation and I'm currently down 14.8 pounds.  My low point was day 52 when I came in at 19.2 down, so I have gained a total of 4.4 back.  I was TERRIFIED to get on the scale because I have the ability to gain 10 pounds in a week and I was scared that I had done that.  3 pounds on an 8 day vacation?  I'm pretty happy with this, but need to get back on track.  Band camp is coming up this week so I have to get through Sunday and Monday.  Then the big work comes in and I usually eat pretty light during band camp.  I predict I'll be back down by Friday to where I was at day 52, and if I'm right - I'd call it a successful run.  Wish me luck!